Refrigerating unit



March 22, 1938. s. F. BRIGGS REFRIGERATING UNIT Fi'le d Oct. 10, 1936 2Sheets-Sheet l Gttomegs Maich 22, 1938.

s. F. BRIGGS ,111,923 REFRIGERATING UNIT 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 10,1956 15 tural elements which had heretofore been re- 20 whereofsubstantially all heat absorbing surfaces Patented Mar. 22, 1938 PATUNITED STATE ENT OFFICE 2.111.923 i i I j nnrnlonna'rme UNIT Stephen F.Briggs, Detroit, Mich., assignor to Outboard, Marine & ManufacturingCompany, Waukegan, 111., a corporation of Delaf ware Application October1 0.1936, Serial No. 105,601

' 5 claims. (on. o2-i2c) This invention relates to refrigerating units.of the unit are likewise parallelto each other and More particularly ithas reference to a combined are vertical and at right angles to themajor axis freezing coil and tray support. The freezing coil of theunit. Similarly the upright portions 9 of is preferably, through notnecessarily, an evapothe successive turns at opposite sides of the unit,5 rator. are parallel to each other and vertical and at Broadlyspeaking, it is the primary object of the ght angles to the major axis.invention to provide a combined freezing coil and This leaves the entirepitch of the original helix tray support and a method of manufacturethereto be absorbed in the top portions ll) of the suc- O which will beinexpensive and at the same time cessive coils which have a sharpinclination from 10 will enable theunit' to function more efficiently asfront to reel i the direction of Winding as e y 10 a heat absorber thanhas been possible in the use ppea s in Fig. 3. The resulting c isPerfectly of previous refrigerator units, rectangular except at its top,front and rear mar- More particularlyjI propose to eliminate metalgillsl l a d I2 W e t pitch is pp lic shells, separate tubes, tanks, andotherstruc- The coils may be held in the indicated positions by any desiredmeans. I prefer to use an anchor quired and to deform a, coil originallyw d clip l5 extending along one side of the unit and helically to reducesuch a coil to a generally rechooked over the front and rear coilsv tereo as .tangular outline andto bond its successive turns clearly Shownin t e Ot Side Of the to each other. to comprise a rigid tray supportunit I may solder into place a partition member l6 which is secured tothe tops of the, successive are in direct contact with the fluidcontained turns and to the sides thereof opposite to the within thecoils of the tube. position of clip l5.

Other objects of the invention wilibe apparent For m un the uni I maysolder or otherto those skilled in the art from the disclosure wisesecure the brackets l1 and I8 to its upper herein contained. surface;Thereupon the entire unit is preferably 25 Inthe drawings: tinned ordipped in solder and the solder unites Figure 1 is a view in perspectiveshowing a, il the successive turns as indicated at 19 to unify wound asthe. first step in the making of my imn ire ructur I 4 provedrefrigerator unit, The flat tubing 5 is preferably of much greaterFigure 2 is 'a front elevation of the completed cross c than thatordinarily s d o, that 80 unit. such tubing per se eliminates anynecessity for Figure 3 is a view of the completed unit in plan using theconventional tank- The ry 111 as it appears with portions broken away toex ply and discharge tubes 29 nd 2! y 1 pose th interior on tru ti n,veniently be inserted into the ends of the flat- Figure.4 is a view ofthe unit in side elevation. telled evaporator 00 tub ng 5, as shown inFi s- Like parts are designated by the same reference 3 and the P r of Sh tubes n t r quir characters throughout the several views. I forcommunic ti n wit the P p 0 nd 2 bein I preferably wind a flattenedhelix such as that flattened as shown at 22 and the connection beshownat 5, in Fig. '1, from a length of flat tubing, 'ing thereupon solderedor otherwise sealed. a the preferred cross section being indicated atthe The coil will naturally be made of any ductile end 6 thereof inFig. 1. Such a coil may conmetal suitable for a heat exchanger,copper,veniently bewound with a conventional hand iron, or aluminum beingpreferred. If the-unit forming machine, or with special machinery builtcomprises the evaporating unit of fa refrigerator, for the purpose, achain or plug being placed on t will. in general, be used in a Sy O e dy the inside of the tubing to prevent collapsing i n i n ype. Liquidrefri r nt from aisuitwhen the bends are made. v l able control valve(not shown), will enter through After it is formed, the coil is pressedtogether one of the pipes 20 or H and its vapor will'leave to eliminatethe spaces between its successive and 4 wherein the bottom portion 1 ofthe several successive turns of the coil 5 are all parallel to eachother, and at right angles to the major axis 55 of the unit. The uprightportions 8 at one side through the other after expanding throughoutturns. In adie or otherwise, it is then deformed the unit.

. 50 to make the box-like units shown in Figs. 2, 3, Y reason h largecross section of the ing used, the unit will have a. large capacity to'receive a considerable volume of low pressure refrigerant. At the sametime, the movement of the refrigerant in one direction through theflattened tubular section illustrated will result in a positive oilreturn such as makes a dry expansion unit desirable.

It .will be observed from Fig. 2, that if the partition I6 is used theinterior of the unit is divided into a number of parts, which areadapted to receive trays 23, 24, 25 for freezing purposes. The designmay, however, be varied as desired.

Due to the fact that the coil itself comprises the tray support, thereis no shell or lining intervening between the refrigerated surfaces ofthe coil and the object to be chilled. Consequently heat transfer occursvery efficiently from the interior of the unit and the exterior surfaceshave also proved to function very efliciently in the cooling of arefrigerator cabinet. In efiect the unit is an oblong box open at itsends but having closed sides entirely formed economically of the coilsof a single tube in substantial contact to provide a continuous primaryrefrigerated surface.

I claim:

1. The method of making a refrigerator unit which consists in coiling atube in the shape of a flattened helix of generally rectangular crosssection and deforming said helix to bring three corresponding sides ofthe several turns into a common plane, substantially the entire pitch ofthe helix being absorbed in the fourth side, and securing together theseveral turns of the helix to comprise a self-supporting unit.

2. The method of making a refrigerator unit which comprises coiling atube of large cross section in the form of a flattened helix-ofsubstantially rectangular cross section, forcing the successive turns ofthe helix into intimate relation, bonding such turns in said relation,inserting smaller supply and discharge pipes into the ends of the tube,flattening such ends to close them laterally adjacent said pipes andsealing said pipes in the ends of the tube.

3. A refrigerating unit/comprising a flattened tube of suflicientlylarge cross section to comprise an evaporator, said tube having aflattened helical form and having its successive turns connected tocomprise a self-supporting unit providing an interior chamber formed bythe walls of the successive turns of the tube, and pipes leading to therespective ends of the tubes and of materially smaller cross section,those portions of the tube ends not required for communication with saidpipes being flattened to mechanically position the respective pipes andbeing sealed therewith.

4. An evaporator comprising a flattened helix of flat tubing insubstantially oblong form, a metallic coating bonding the successiveturns of the helix for connection thereof, and a shelf having asubstantially horizontal portion and a substantially vertical portionmarginally connected to the side and top of the helix to be supportedtherefrom, said shelf dividing the interior of the helix into separatechambers.

5. An evaporator unitcomprising a single coil of flattened tubing withcurvilinear side walls, said tubing being in the form of a flattenedhelix of substantially oblong shape, three sides of each successive coilof said helix being in substantially the same plane and the entire pitchof said helix being absorbed in the remaining side thereof, the sidewalls of the tubing of the successive turns being in intimate contactwith contiguous turns,

and a metallic coating being applied to the entire helix and extendinginto the crevices between the said curvilinear side walls and comprisingmeans for bonding the successive turns unitarily together.

STEPHEN F. BRIGGS.

